Alex Salmond lost his Gordon seat to the Tories.
Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

As a young woman, Wendy Allan, now 42, was always loyal to the SNP to ensure there were “bums on seats” in Westminster talking about the issues important to Scotland. But after what she describes as growing discontent in the Aberdeenshire town of Inverurie, she used her vote to help oust one of the party’s biggest beasts, Alex Salmond.

Theresa May’s premiership in peril as loose alliance agreed with DUP

Read more

Allan, a full-time carer, is among a new wave of pro-union voters who have transformed the Scottish political landscape, returning 13 MPs for the Tories in what is the party’s best result north of the border since 1983.

After making stunning gains in 2015, Nicola Sturgeon’s party has seen its majority crumble, losing 21 of its 56 seats. While there was a return to two-party politics in England and Wales, Scotland is a four-party nation again.

In the dramatic events of Thursday night/Friday morning, Salmond, the former first minister, and the SNP’s deputy leader Angus Robertson were unseated, in Gordon and Moray respectively. But perhaps the biggest casualty of the night was the prospect of a second independence referendum for Scotland, an issue that had dominated campaigning.

For Allan, a supporter of Brexit who voted No in the 2014 referendum, it was the notion of a second vote on independence that swung it. “The minute Sturgeon started talking about another referendum, that was a clincher. I have friends who voted Yes but have now voted Labour because they have had enough. People are tired of the to-ing and fro-ing. Within weeks of Brexit, Sturgeon was back on her soap box; I think she realises now that was a mistake.”

Allan, who has a 10-year-old son with special needs, says she feels let down by local plans to close the specialist school he attends. “The building is not fit for purpose and there is no money to maintain it but elsewhere they are building new schools. I thought the SNP was going to provide a superior education system but it seems children with special needs are at the bottom of the pile.”

However, she admits aspects of the Tory manifesto concern her. “I was tortured in the runup to the election. I’m unhappy about Tory plans to cut the disability benefits and I’m thinking who will look after my mother – but in the end it was a tactical vote and I’m delighted to see the back of Salmond.”

Others remain in shock that the little-known Colin Clark defeated Salmond. Clark, a businessman and farmer elected as a councillor for Inverurie in a byelection in November, said in his victory speech: “The silent majority have spoken. We’re proud to be part of the UK.”

Norman Burns, 70, an SNP voter, remembers fondly Salmond’s early days in power. “He impressed me then and I’m sad to see him go. I knew the Conservatives had targeted the seat but it’s still a shock.” His wife Lorna Burns, 67, praised Robertson who had held Moray since 2001 but lost to the Conservative Douglas Ross. “He was fantastic in the campaign,” she said, “but the plans for another referendum were used against him. Sturgeon got the timing wrong. She should have waited.”

Inverurie is an affluent area and one of the fastest growing towns in the north-east, but has been blighted in recent years by thousands of job cuts for oil and gas workers. Fiona Duncan, 50, says turning to the Tories will only exacerbate the region’s problems. “I’m totally shocked at the results and I think many people have misunderstood what this general election is about,” she said. “They seem to think it was all about the SNP having a second referendum, which is crazy – this was about keeping the Tories out.”

Duncan, who is out of work while she recovers from a knee operation, says people have lost sight of the issues that matter most. “I’m furious about the result – what about the welfare cuts, the dementia tax, the concerns around the ageing population?”

She added: “Without treatment on the NHS I would be crippled – but that’s exactly what is going to happen to our health service under the Tories.”

Thirty miles north-east in the coastal town of Peterhead, locals at the Waverley hotel were toasting Salmond’s first defeat since being elected as an MP in 1987. Murdo MacKenzie, 51, a former fisherman, said there was a lot of anger about Sturgeon’s stance on Europe. “Europe is dictating our fishing quotas. I’ve voted SNP all my life but if you take the power away from Westminster and hand it to Brussels, how is that independence?”

Ex-oil worker Alan Buchan, 73, said: “I voted to stay in the UK and I voted for Brexit. I don’t trust Sturgeon so I voted for who would give us the least bad deal and that’s May.”

The SNP has seen its majority slashed from 56 to 35 with Ruth Davidson’s Conservatives making gains including Angus, Aberdeen South and Stirling.

With the nationalists coming from a state of near perfection in 2015, it is not surprising the competition is gaining ground. But the Tories have made striking headway, with Sturgeon accusing them of “causing chaos on an industrial scale”. While the SNP retains its majority and remains the third largest party in the Commons, Sturgeon has conceded the losses were “bitterly disappointing”. She may now drop plans for a second independence referendum, pledging to “reflect carefully” on the result. Brexit, a late surge in support for Labour and tactical voting were among other factors driving the losses, the first minister said.

Labour made six gains, taking its total of seats to seven while the Liberal Democrats now have four.

In North East Fife Stephen Gethins held on to his seat by just two votes as the SNP came under severe pressure from the Lib Dems amid nail-biting recounts.

Murray Coueslant, 18, voted in Aberdeen North, where the SNP held its seat with 41% of the vote, this time fighting off advances from Labour. Coueslant said: “I don’t think independence is the right thing for Scotland. I believe in voting for a party not a leader so I voted Lib Dem. Their policies are most aligned with my views but most of my friends voted for Corbyn.”

Indeed, young people inspired by the Corbyn campaign, reminiscent of how they were inspired by the independence movement in 2014, contributed to a late surge in support for Labour with the SNP taking the hit.

Only a few weeks ago, political commentators had written off Labour’s chances in Scotland. Now the Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale, says that a pro-union stance, coupled with a message of hope underpinning Corbyn’s manifesto, brought the party back from the brink north of the border. She said: “We’ve seen support from those who voted SNP in 2015 and are disappointed the party hasn’t lived up to its anti-austerity rhetoric. There is also undoubtedly some tactical voting from people who voted No in the referendum.”

She added: “If you look at seats like Coatbridge and East Lothian they couldn’t be more different in terms of demographic but they illustrate that combination of no voting and anti-austerity voters that has taken up the seven seats.”

Labour also took back Glasgow North East – the seat that had the single biggest swing against Labour to the SNP in the 2015 election. Dugdale said if the first minister had any humility and understanding she should shelve her plans for a “divisive” referendum.

And while she acknowledged Davidson’s success, she said: “I’m sure she’ll be slightly concerned this Tory resurgence in Scotland is partly down to the borrowed vote from the pro-unionists.”

There is no denying that Davidson has performed a tour de force, with Scotland becoming the Tories’ unlikely saviour. Her glittering success in winning an extra 12 seats is a marked contrast to the Tories’ plight at Westminster. On Saturday she dismissed reports that Scots Tories might break away from the main UK party.

The polling expert John Curtice said: “The Tories have recaptured most of the traditional middle-class rural part of the country where they used to be strong. The real disappointment for them is the Labour revival. They would have been hoping to be the unchallenged champions of unionism in Scotland but Labour is back in business.”

For pro-union voters like Allan, who is facing sending her young son with special needs to a mainstream school amid public service cuts, will the future be any brighter? She said: “It was a tough decision and the Tories might not be any better but at the end of the day another vote on independence was a deal breaker.”